Metro is installing a new $3 million camera system throughout its bus fleet in an attempt to improve driver performance and to cut back on “preventable” accidents.
The new “DriveCam” system will capture video and audio in 16-second chunks whenever a driver accelerates or brakes suddenly, turns sharply or executes any other aggressive driving maneuver.
The cameras will record both the road in front of the bus and the driver behind the wheel.
“We want to eliminate all poor driving habits,” said spokesman Reggie Woodruff. “If it’s determined by the data that a driver does a lot of short stops and fast accelerations, which is disruptive to customers and affects fuel economy, we want to eliminate that.”
Woodruff said the DriveCam works like a television DVR system and is constantly recording but not always saving the information it gathers.
When a driver slams on the breaks or hits a pothole, the system will save the 12 seconds of video and audio preceding the event and the four seconds following the event for later review by Metro supervisors.
“This is another tool that we will have to train our personnel to focus on safety,” said Metro chief safety officer James Dougherty.
Dougherty said DriveCam is intended to help Metrobus operations by identifying “risky behavior” before the behavior results in an incident.
Calls to the union representing Metrobus drivers were not returned.
Metro officials fired one bus operator earlier this year when the driver struck a pedestrian in Southeast Washington. There have been no Metrobus-related fatalities so far this year, but that hasn’t always been the case. In 2007, Metrobuses struck and killed five pedestrians.
Woodruff said for every 200,000 miles a Metrobus is on the road, it’s involved in roughly three “preventable” accidents – those accidents the bus driver “could have avoided.”
He said that number had improved in recent years, but Metro officials want to eradicate preventable accidents altogether.
“The system is focused on training the drivers and preventing accidents and reinforcing good habits. We have an existing camera system that is focused on security,” Woodruff said.
Metro already has in many of its buses a five-camera passenger surveillance system — distinct from the new DriveCam system — to capture the activity of riders and those standing just outside the bus.
Woodruff said the passenger cameras are in 1,031 of Metro’s 1,500-bus fleet, and should be in all buses by July 2011. Installations of the newer DriveCams are scheduled to be completed in January.
